Home prices in Australia climb, Tokyo condo sales fall, and more of the week’s top stories

Last week, a Chinese developer bought an office building in Sydney’s Central Business District for an auspicious price: A$88,888,888. Because the number 8 is considered lucky in Chinese culture (it’s pronounced “ba” in Chinese and is similar to the Chinese word “fa,” which means prosperous), this comes as no surprise to real estate insiders who frequently work with Asian buyers in locations around the world.

“Eight is definitely a very popular number,” said Gaby Rogers, associate director of sales at Colliers International in Sydney.

The number’s popularity figures prominently in real estate, both as a way that buyers can show that they really like a property when making an offer, but also in other ways, like in the street address, unit number or building floor count, she said.

Jamie Mi, an international relationship executive at real estate agency Kay & Burton, who works with foreign buyers purchasing luxury property in Melbourne, Australia, said that the number 8 is typically considered lucky by people from southern Chinese cities like Hong Kong, Fuzhou and Guangzhou, as well as some buyers from Japan, Singapore and Malaysia.

When 8 is part of an address, it can be really appealing to these buyers, she said. One example of this is a building at 88 Alfred St. in Sydney, which agents at Colliers International sold in a few hours.

“People were scrambling to get in there,” Ms. Rogers said, noting that 80 percent of the buyers were Chinese. The negotiations played out with a lot of 8s in them, too, with one of the penthouses closing for A$6.38 million, after Ms. Rogers’ client said he “needed an 8 in the final price.”

A building with a floor number with an 8 might also appeal, Ms. Mi said, whether that’s the floor that someone lives on or the number of stories in a building. A search on the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat Skyscraper Center database reveals that developers from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing to Dubai are raising or have completed residential and mixed use structures that have 88 or 108 or even 128 floors—and, in some cases, a height in meters that ends in 8, too.

On the other end of that spectrum, 4, which is pronounced “si,” a word synonymous with death in Chinese culture, can have the opposite effect. Ms. Rogers said that she’s seen developers adjust their plans based on this superstition, as was the case in the Stamford Residences at 171 Gloucester St. in Sydney sold back in 2010. “That was the first time that I’d seen a developer pull out all of the fours, completely,” she said, noting that there was no floor 4, 14, 24 or any units with a 4 in them.

Ansel Kim, with L.A.-based real estate firm The Agency, said he’s had multiple deals fall through because of an unlucky number, in one case not because of the number itself, but because the digits in the unit number—553—added up to 13. That buyer was Korean, Mr. Kim said, and backed out of an all-cash deal once she made this realization.

There are other ways that 13, generally considered unlucky in the United States and a number of other places, is taken out of buildings or real estate decisions entirely. Many new buildings still skip the 13th floor, experts say, like the Baccarat Hotel & Residences in Midtown Manhattan, which has hotel rooms through the 12th floor, a mechanical floor on 13, and starts with apartments on 18. The 76-floor New York by Gehry residential building at 8 Spruce St. doesn’t have a 13th floor at all. City planners even sometimes opt to leave 13 out of street names, as is the case in Santa Monica, California, where there’s a 2nd through 26th Street, but no 13th Street, which is instead named Euclid.

While 8, 4 and 13 are most often the “lucky” and “unlucky” numbers that impact real estate, experts note that in some other cultures, different numbers can also carry a special meaning.

Shelly Shmelzer, the director of sales and marketing for Eastern Europe at Sotheby’s International Realty, who’s based in Tel Aviv, said that because 18 in Jewish culture is associated with “chai,” the Hebrew word meaning “life” or “alive,” it’s considered lucky in that culture. As a result, she’s seen Israeli buyers request to sign a property contract on the 18th day of the month.

She’s also seen a preference for the number 7 by Russian buyers, as 7 symbolizes the seven days of world creation, she said. But, at the end of the day, “most of these buyers aren’t very superstitious,” she said, “and are rather just looking for a good deal.”

On this note, many people, including plenty of Chinese buyers, don’t consider these things at all when making real estate decisions. Ms. Rogers thinks the focus on lucky and unlucky numbers may be temporary.
“Because the Chinese buying power has been so huge over the last couple of years, numbers have been really important,” she said. But with China clamping down on outgoing funds, that that might change, she said. “If we had this interview in another two or three years, it might be quite a different story.”

Here’s a look at other news from around the world compiled by Mansion Global:

Home Prices in Australia Continue Their Steady Upward Climb
Australian home prices saw their second straight month of gains, according to a new September report from CoreLogic. The strong numbers are largely due to high demand in cities like Melbourne and Sydney, as opposed to areas like Brisbane, Perth, and Darwin, where prices actually dropped a bit. The growth is partly attributed to recent rate cuts by the Reserve Bank of Australia, which has lowered rates to a record low of 1.5%. All told, CoreLogic found that prices in the nation’s capital cities grew 1% month-over-month, and 7.1% year-over-year. (Business Times)

The San Francisco Victorian That Starred in “Mrs. Doubtfire” Is For Sale
The 1893 turreted Victorian that served as the family home in “Mrs. Doubtfire” is on the market for $4.4 million, the first time it’s been for sale since its current owner bought the house for $1.3 million in 1997. The four-bedroom house includes an attached garage and private outdoor area, and since the death of star Robin Williams in 2014 has been a popular spot for fans to leave flowers and other mementos. (Luxury Listings NYC)

Experts say Dubai’s Property Market Has Already Started its Recovery
Multiple major real estate players are saying that Dubai’s dipping market has turned a corner, and now presents a smart investment opportunity for buyers. However, the growth isn’t uniform and varies depending on what part of the city you’re looking in. “You have to look area by area, and I think the good areas have already bottomed,” said Core Savills chief executive, David Godchaux. Similarly, given the nature of real estate cycles, the managing director of Global Capital Partners has said, “If you agree that we are close to the bottom, bottoming out or having turned a corner, you are buying into this thesis of higher highs and higher lows. If you are buying into that, then this is about as good a time as any to buy.” (The National)

New Services Play Middle Man So You Can Rake in Rental Cash Off Your Vacation Home
With the exploding popularity of short-term rental sites, several new startups have emerged to help owners market their properties, find suitable renters, and manage details like laundry, cleaning, and key exchanges. Some, such as high-end option ThirdHome, offer an innovative twist on the arrangement, allowing users to earn credits based on their home’s desirability and rate of rental guests, and then use those credits to earn stays in other luxury homes within the site’s portfolio. (Bloomberg)

Chinese Cities Take Measures To Cool Down an Overheated Market
Four Chinese cities—Chengdu, Jinan, Wuhan and Zhengzhou—are taking steps to slow down rampant real estate speculation, with measures including limiting the number of properties a person can own, and increasing down payment requirements to as much as 40% or 50%. The Overseas-Chinese Banking Corporation has said that the new restrictions “show that China’s top level may have reached consensus that the concerns about overheating in property market may have overshadowed the concerns about the economic slowdown.” (Asia Times)

For High-End Travelers, Hotels May Be Safer Than Private Apartments
The dramatic robbery of Kim Kardashian at a high-end, celebrity-friendly Paris apartment last weekend has instantly become a cautionary tale for wealthy travelers looking to keep themselves and their belongings safe while on the road. And while the privacy offered by an apartment may be appealing, it come at the expense of the tight security measures one can generally expect at a luxury hotel. According to one hotel attorney and professor of hospitality law, luxury hotels will “likely have perimeter security cameras and guards, plainclothes security officers walking the halls, and more possibilities of people coming in and out of the hallways.” (Town and Country)

Tokyo Condo Sales Have Hit Their Lowest Level Since 1992
Amid record-high prices and flatlining wage growth, condo sales in Tokyo tumbled a whopping 32% in the first eight months of 2016, hitting their lowest level since the 1992 property bubble collapse. “Stagnation in wages is why we are seeing a slowdown in sales,” said a senior researcher at Mizuho Securities Co. “If you look at interest rates, historically speaking there has never been a better time to buy, but developers without really good properties are having trouble selling.” (Business Times)

This Luxury Vacation Enclave in Hawaii is Drawing Billionaire Clientele
Hawaii has added another luxury private vacation community to its ranks with Kohanaiki, a complex on the Big Island’s Kona Coast where residences are priced anywhere from $3 million to $22.5 million. There’s also an entrance fee of $100,000 and annual dues of $25,000, which will get buyers access to amenities such as a waterfront golf course, full service spa (complete with yoga lawn), bar and restaurant, clubhouse with an extensive wine cellar, four-lane bowling alley, movie theater, and a “cigar lounge with a speakeasy-style secret entrance and a scotch bar.” The complex is part of a growing number of private communities on the big island geared toward celebrities, athletes, and wealthy tech entrepreneurs. (Bloomberg)